Sunday, September 27, 2009

Till Death Do Them Apart

27 September 2009, Sunday (8 Syawal)

It was really poignant and heart wrenching to see my father-in-law who is suffering from dementia holding his wife's hands (my mother in law) as she lay in her death bed, gasping for air a day (17 September 2009) before she passed away (18 September 2009).
 
 
 
 
 

Imagine, these were the hands he had held tenderly when they were younger, when time stood still, when love conquers everything else.

And I recalled that Sunday, 6 September 2009 (3 days before my mother-in-law was hospitalised for urine infection that culminated in her death on 18 September 2009).
 
That day, my husband and I had taken my father-in-law to visit my mother-in-law and sister-in-law, Tini in Bangi. It's really sad that neither my father-in-law nor my mother-in-law recognised each other.

Imagine, they had been married for over 60 years and they used to be so lovey-dovey. And yet that day, there was no flicker of recognition between either of them. He used to hold her hands tenderly when they were crossing roads. He used to gaze lovingly into her eyes. He used to love her deeply. Yet, today they appeared like strangers.

One day, all of us are going that path too (what you call as dementia). And we just do not know when our life will be snuffed out, so before we pop our clogs, make hay while the sun shines.

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